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September 16, 2012

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If you are not happy with the stock android software that came with your Samsung handset and want to add more spices to it, then flashing becomes an inevitable part at one point of time. Also, being able to flash stock firmwares on a handset has it's own advantages. Apart from the fact that flashing is risky and can sometime lead to a bricked handset --if not done properly-- there are probably no cons of it. The pros include the ability to revive/recover a handset from the state of soft brick or from the screen of death, manually upgrade the firmware of your handset with the latest update available and fix almost all software related problems.

Odinatrix Tool/Utility - Helps prepare Odin flashable tar files.

So, if you are an advance user messing with your handset now and again, then flashing is the best process you can familiarize yourself with. This has been possible and quite simple, thanks to the sites like samfirmware.com and/or sampro.pl on the web, as they provide Samsung smartphones users with required flashing tools (Odin and corresponding .pit or .ops file) as well as downloads for official stock firmwares.

However, not all handsets can be flashed and not all firmwares provided at these site can be used directly with Odin firmware flashing tool. The 'i' models of various galaxy series such as Galaxy Mini/Pop GT-S5570i (aka. Pop Plus, Mini Plus, Next Turbo and other common names around the world), Galaxy Ace GT-S5830i (aka Ace Plus) as well as Galaxy Young S5630 smartphones users seem to have problem flashing firmwares from samfirmware.com directly using Odin. This is where Odinatrix steps in and saves your day :D

Thanks to an ACervellati and Doc_cheilvenerdi.org for creating and sharing this awesome tool/script that takes the firmwares provided by samfirmware.com and then convert it into Odin flashable firmwares files. Like SplitFUS2 tool, Odinatrix also splits the given one package firmware into multiple .tar files that can be then used to flash your phone. However, they are different from one another: Odinatrix is for Windows while SplitFUS2 is especially for Linux. Though the latter can be operated in windows PC with the help of Cygwin, it is quite difficult and tedious process to setup everything for beginners and this is where Odinatrix wins the game. So, I recommend using Odinatrix to prepare Odin flashable files from the firmware you download from samfirmware or other similar sites.

Another advantage of Odinatrix is that it seems to support a wide range of samsung devices. It supports splitting of firmwares for Samsung Galaxy Ace GT-S5830i model, Galaxy Pop/Mini GT-S5570i model as well as for Samsung Galaxy Y GT-S5630 model. With this tool, you can split a single .tar or .tar.md5 firmware file into multiple .tar files which afterwards can be used for CSC, PHONE and PDA fields in Odin Multidownloader tool to flash your handset with official firmware.

Is Odinatrix really useful? How do I get started?

By now you are probably excited about Odinatrix especially if you own one of those handsets that I mentioned above. So, without any delay, I'll detail the step by step instructions on using Odinatrix to get all those files that are required to flash your Samsung galaxy handset.

Download Odinatrix and then extract it on your Desktop or on any place you prefer.

Now download the firmware for your device released for your region from samfirmware.com or other similar sites.

Once you get the firmware zip, extract it and you'll get a .tar.md5 or .tar file on your PC.

Copy this file inside the Odinatrix directory that was created while extracting the Odinatrix tool in Step 1.

When everything is set, open/double-click the runme.bat executable file.

You'll be presented with a command window with few instructions. Make sure you read the whole of the information and meet all the requirements.

When you are ready, press enter key and it will look for the firmware file in the directory it is currently in. So, if you haven't yet copied the .tar or .tar.md5 file to this directory then do so now and try again.

If Odinatrix finds a firmware, then it'll list it in the command window and ask you to press any key to proceed.

Confirm TAR Processing Prompt - Press Enter to continue.

Press Enter key and it'll examine if the firmware has a deformed header or not. That is, if it can be flashed directly using Odin or not. If it has good tar header or if it can be flashed via Odin then, it will say so and exit the process. Else, it'll begin the process of splitting the firmware (.tar.md5) file into multiples .tar files files as well as create a single .tar.md5 file having good header, which is what the developers refer to as sanitizing of archives.

The process will take long time (about 30-60 minutes), so you'll need to wait patiently.

When done, it'll show the following result (as seen in the image below) and you'll get three .tar files and one .tar.md5 file in the output folder within your Odinatrix directory.

Odinatrix Processing Completed information with exit prompt.

Odinatrix is done with the task. So, what next?

Odinatrix Final Output after sanitization of firmware is completed

Well, now that odinatrix has successfully processed your firmware archive and sanitized it, you are ready to flash your handset with stock samsung firmware. If you go to the output folder within Odinatrix directory, you should see four files (see image aside), one a full package .tar.md5 file and remaining .tar files each for using as PDA, PHONE and CSC in your respective version of Odin tool while flashing.

So, you are now ready to flash official samsung firmware on your galaxy series of smartphone. Just get the version of Odin that is suitable for (or supported by) your smart phone and then run it on your PC and :

When everything is ready, connect your phone in download mode to your PC.

Press Start button after odin recognizes your device.

Wait for few minutes (about 5-6 mins) till the firmware is downloaded and installed on your smartphone.

When Odin says PASS in upper left box (within Odin) you may disconnect your handset from your Personal Computer and enjoy using latest firmware on your device.

And we are done with this. Have you come across any other tool fulfilling similar purpose? How was your experience using it? You can share with us your thoughts at the comments below. Also, if you have any doubts regarding odinatrix or the methodology of using it to prepare Odin ready firmware files, then please don't hesitate to leave a comment below.